City job market improving, says Hays

The job market in the City of London has started to stabilise, according to Hays,
the country's largest recruiter.

The company said recruitment in the City had began to improve after falling 80pc from its peak two years ago.

"Over the last three months we've seen some hiring. It's still significantly below a year ago but it's stabilised," said Paul Venables, Hays's finance director. "The institutions in a strong financial position are looking to build up the best teams so that when recovery comes they can attack it. We've had a freeze but you cannot freeze recruitment forever."

Hays reported a 45pc drop in net fees in Britain and Ireland in the three months to the end of June, and cut another 5pc of its staff, taking the total reduction to 26pc over the last year. The company also closed 15 offices during the quarter.

In the UK, the two areas which will drive recovery in the jobs market will be finance and construction, Mr Venables said. He added it was too early to say whether the finance and accountancy sector across the country had stabilised and that the building and real estate sector remained "weak".

According to Mr Venables, the job market across the country remains "fragile" because companies are nervous about their forward order books, and redundancy programmes are still under way.